Opinion
Editorial

It is difficult to understand why Industry Minister Tony Clement ventured into the Twilight Zone with his comment that Sudbury faced being reduced to a "valley of death," had Brazilian-owned Vale S. A. not bought Inco Ltd. two and a half years ago.

There is no upside to these comments for Clement. At the very least, he should explain how he came to this conclusion. Such an explanation would be enlightening and subject to a great deal of scrutiny in the community, since Vale has made billions of dollars in profit since it purchased Inco.

Clement made the comments to Sudbury Star reporter Carol Mulligan. He was responding to United Steelworkers president Leo Gerard, who said the federal government should have done more to ensure Vale lived up to its commitments when it purchased Inco. (This is quite provocative, since Clement has now said he will take U. S. Steel to court for not living up to a similar agreement when it purchased Stelco.) Clement said without Vale's purchase that Inco would "not exist, it would have been closed down, it would have been liquidated if there wasn't a buyer."

He continued: "There was going to be no buyer, there were going to be no jobs, there weren't going to be any capital investments, there was going to be no employer.

"That was the Valley of Death that Sudbury faced."

For Sudburians, this comment carries a considerable "wow" factor, since the area has suffered worse economic downturns -- including $2/lb nickel in the 1990s (it stood at $7.31/lb on Monday) and a six-month shutdown of local nickel operations in the early 1980s.

If the implication was that no one other than Vale was willing to purchase Inco, that's bizarre, since it had a merger agreement with the former Falconbridge. As well, Teck Cominco offered to purchase Inco and Phelps Dodge had an agreement to purchase Inco. If nothing else, Inco could have soldiered on alone during the period of $24/lb. nickel that followed Vale's purchase and found somewhere to invest all that money.

Clement's comment is consistent with his contention that he is the area's guardian angel. He claimed he coaxed Vale to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in capital in Sudbury -- a decision that had already been made by Inco previous to Vale's purchase.

But the most damaging part of his comments is that they appear to come down squarely on the side of the company just days into what looks to be a lengthy strike. Just before the strike deadline, Roger Agnelli, CEO of Vale S. A., was quoted in a Dow Jones story saying: "If we hadn't bought Inco, perhaps it wouldn't now be even alive."

The only possible explanation for Clement's comments is that he believes what Vale told him when it bought Inco, but we don't know what Vale told him because he won't release the agreement it signed with the federal government.

Since this strike is likely to draw international attention, Clement needs to develop a communications strategy that will help Sudbury in the long run. But that might be difficult now, since his credibility in Sudbury is compromised.